Interface: Dick Lynch

Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits’ new chief marketing officer is eager to build the brand.

By Scott Hume, Editor-in-Chief -- Restaurants & Institutions, 4/1/2008

After serving as a marketing consultant to Atlanta-based AFC Enterprises, Dick Lynch in February joined AFC as chief marketing officer; he was charged with developing a new brand strategy for the Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits chain. As a principal of GO LLC from 2003 to 2008, Lynch worked with Burger King, Ruby Tuesday and other restaurant brands. Previously, he had worked on the agency side at Campbell Mithun Advertising, Tracy-Locke Advertising and Ketchum Communications.

Q. How do consumers view Popeyes now, and why do they visit?

A. One of the things that most attracted me to come to Popeyes and work with [CEO] Cheryl Bachelder was the brand. This is unlike any other QSR brand out there, certainly not like any I’ve ever worked with. There is a realness, an authenticity to the brand. This is a brand that has a spiritual home. It was born of a culinary point of view, and that of course was its Louisiana heritage.

When you look at the menu or in the stores, everything we do somehow or another connects with that Louisiana heritage. So it’s not like you’re just asking what’s the new cheese we’re going to throw on a sandwich or what’s the new lettuce or sauce that you’re going to make a limited-time offer out of; this is a brand that’s driven by a culinary point of view.

Q. What does that culinary base mean to consumers?

A. Popeyes has a spiciness, a really robust flavor profile. Historically, Popeyes was always seen as a very spicy brand, and now that tastes are evolving, consumers are catching up with us.

Q. Do you need to be careful not to lose that heritage as a brand anchor?

A. Yes, and I think anchor is a good way to put it. It’s not handcuffs, and Popeyes is not a theme restaurant, but [our heritage] is a real point of difference in an industry that really doesn’t have many, quite frankly. And when they do, half the time they make it up. We don’t have to make it up.

Q. Where are the opportunities to build the brand in the future? Are they in menu, dayparts, audience?

A. Probably all of the above. Clearly the majority of our business is good old bone-in fried chicken, but we have an opportunity to go beyond that, I think. We have menu gaps that we need to fill in, gaps when you look at other QSRs and chicken QSRs. And from a build-out standpoint, we only have about 1,600 restaurants, so there’s an opportunity there to make this a more-accessible brand.

There are some dayparts we could use some revving up in. I can’t tip my hand too much, but clearly daypart opportunities are something we are looking at very hard.

Q. Many other chains are looking at breakfast. Is that an opportunity for Popeyes?

A. Probably not immediately, to be honest. There are other dayparts that are more readily accessible to us. Breakfast requires new equipment; it’s a pretty major investment. From a culinary standpoint we could do it in a heartbeat. From a what’s-up-next standpoint, though, I wouldn’t expect us to go there immediately.

Q. What about customer-base expansion?

A. We have a great demographic profile. We have a 40/40/20 breakout: we’re about 40% African American, 40% Caucasian and about 20% all others, primarily Hispanic. We’ve done a lot of research on this brand, and it is very colorblind. It is a very new-age brand in many ways.

People say, aren’t you an African-American brand? The answer is absolutely not. I like to say we’re post-ethnic, though I made up that word. But we really are. The whole personality of this brand is beyond whether you’re black or white or Hispanic. It’s something that’s very powerful.

Q. But with three main ethnic audiences, are there menu or marketing elements tailored to appeal to each of these groups?

A. No, that’s my point. We’re beyond that. In the old days, we probably would have targeted African-American taste preferences, and Hispanic and Caucasian [preferences]. Now we’re targeting a new sensibility. Twenty-one-year-olds now just don’t have the same kind of [ethnic] barriers that I, who’s way older than that, grew up with. It’s just a big [melting pot] of tastes that shows up in our menu and our advertising and will show up in our promotions.

When you look at how [young] people think about race and communications and advertising and music, it’s just a big [blend]. And it’s fun.

Q. Is there a price ceiling you feel you need to stay under, or is there an opportunity to look at more premium-price items?

A. I think it’s fair to say that we know we compete squarely within the QSR category and we’ve got to stay within the QSR parameters. And they’re pretty well defined.

We’re fairly premium-priced now. When you buy a two- or three-piece chicken combo, that’s a lot more expensive than running out for a Snack Wrap at McDonald’s, so we’re doing OK in the premium-price world. But we have to play within the boundaries of QSRs.

Q. Are those boundaries more narrow now, given the slow economy? Do you need to balance lower and higher ends?

A. Yes. I’d say we’re in a pretty good position to receive the bottom end of casual dining, the people who are saying "We can’t afford Applebee’s tonight, kids. But we can get a great chicken dinner at Popeyes for half the cost or less." We’re getting some of these diners.

But we also have to be mindful that there’s our target who has $2 or $3 in his pocket. We’ve all heard the expression "veto vote." Typically you apply that to healthful or nonfried products. You’ve got to have a nonfried or healthful product to get the veto vote in the car. We’re finding that we need low-price products to get that veto vote.

When four guys are driving around and one guy only has $2, they’re going to pick a QSR where the guy with $2 can get something too. They’re not going to front him. We’ve heard this loud and clear. So we’ve got it covered on the top, but we have to make sure we’re covered at the bottom, too.

Q. Do you need to add shrimp or fish or other options if the veto vote is on chicken?

A. Seafood has been a very nice complement for us. We’re chicken-centric and we always will be. But for some reason that extends naturally to seafood. Some of our restaurants have catfish, and right now we’re featuring popcorn shrimp or catfish strips. Most of our restaurants have very high-quality seafood items year-round.

I wouldn’t suggest that we’d go to proteins beyond that simply because there isn’t a need to. Chicken is the hot protein and continues to be on fire. We’re the happy recipients of being in a very hot category right now. So we might do something [different] tactically for limited-time offers, but we’re happily chicken-centric.

Q. You’ve been involved in restaurant marketing for quite a while. Give me a sense of what you see when you look at the state of the foodservice industry overall.

A. A couple things. One is that I’m glad we’re not in casual dining. Those guys are really getting hit hard with the economy. That’s tough, because for them to get people in on price, it just eats away their margins. That’s a tough place to be.

In QSR land, it’s evolving upward in quality and price. Some Wall Street analysts refuse to use the words "fast casual," but whether you think it exists or not, the emergence of Chipotle, Panera Bread, Qdoba and El Pollo Loco and others really demonstrates consumer desire for better quality and more differentiation in food, and a willingness to pay more for it.

Q. And you believe the consumer desire for quality plays to Popeyes’ strength more than it provides a challenge?

A. Oh absolutely. We are clearly differentiated by the quality and culinary distinctiveness of our food. That’s why I came. I wouldn’t want to work for a chain that wasn’t about the food.

There are lots of chains that are operations- or financial-oriented, and that’s fine. They’re successful, and there’s more than one way to skin a cat. I love food—the art of it—and I came here because the Popeyes brand is about the food.

Q. You’re overseeing menu development as well as marketing. How do you balance those roles?

A. Because I’m in charge of menu development, we have real focus with the new products we’re working on, and that gives me something to tell on my advertising side. I think it’s easy to tell a story when you have a story to tell.

My product side is giving my advertising side a ton of stuff to work with. They’re really one and the same. It all comes from the soul of the brand.

Q. How optimistic or confident are you about Popeyes’ achieving its goals?

A. Well, we have our challenges. I don’t like the word "turnaround," but Cheryl was brought in after many periods of a tough environment. But I can confidently say that we’ve defined a path and that the path rings true. The path we’ve set comes from the heart of the brand. We’re not making it up, and I’ve had to make it up before. I’m a marketer; I know when it’s real and I know when it’s not. And it’s a lot easier when it’s real. This is real and we’re feeling good.

I’m certainly very confident that the DNA of the brand has a future that I’d love to market and that will get lots of traction in the marketplace.